(Bloomberg) -- MetLife Inc., the largest U.S. life insurer, plans to cut expenses by 11 percent as low interest rates squeeze investment income.
The plan is to reduce annual costs by about $1 billion by the end of 2019 and will include job cuts, Chief Executive Officer Steve Kandarian said Thursday in a conference call without specifying how many workers will be dismissed by the New York-based company. The insurer had 69,000 employees at the end of 2015, according to its most recent annual report.
Central bank policies to suppress interest rates have reduced the income MetLife makes on a bond-dominated investment portfolio valued at more than $500 billion. The company said late Wednesday that second-quarter profit tumbled 90 percent to $110 million on a review of the prospects of a variable-annuity business that the CEO is seeking to exit as part of a proposed separation of a U.S. retail operation.
“In light of the significant headwinds our industry is facing, MetLife must do even more to avoid simply running in place,” Kandarian said. “We know this will require us to reduce headcount, which is never an easy step for an organization to take. Our overall goal is to be more efficient, so that we can better serve our customers and provide a fair return to shareholders.”
Share Slump
He cited a deal, announced this week, in which Computer Sciences Corp. will administer almost 7 million policies for the insurer. The agreement includes call-center and information-technology support, and CSC said it would offer employment to more than 1,000 people who work for MetLife in the U.S. and India. Kandarian has previously moved jobs to North Carolina to help save costs.
MetLife dropped 9.5 percent to $39.54 at 4:15 p.m. in New York. The company has tumbled 18 percent this year, compared with the 5.9 percent gain of the S&P 500 Index. Prudential Financial Inc., the second-largest U.S. life insurer, fell 4.3 percent to $72.84. Lincoln National Corp. slumped 4 percent. Lincoln and Newark, New Jersey-based Prudential also reported declines in second-quarter profit after markets closed Wednesday.
“The rate and economic environment is not conducive in allowing a company like Met to thrive,” David Havens, a debt analyst at Imperial Capital, said in a note. “It can certainly get by and remain a solid credit.”
Shifting Focus
The decision by U.K. voters to leave the European Union hurt insurers as financial markets responded to the referendum by pushing down interest rates in nations such as the U.S., Kandarian said. The company is projecting 10-year Treasury yields will increase to 4.25 percent by 2027, Chief Financial Officer John Hele said on the call. That outlook is even worse than in November when the company said they won’t reach a “normalized” level of 4.5 percent for 11 years.
The CEO announced a plan in January to separate the U.S. retail operation, which includes products such as variable annuities where results are closely tied to fluctuations in financial markets. His goal is to focus more on businesses like group benefits while pursuing expansion in Asia and Latin America. The company said Thursday that it plans to file documents for a public offering or spinoff of the unit after a board meeting in September.
MetLife has halted share buybacks until it makes more disclosures about the U.S. retail unit, which was named Brighthouse Financial. Kandarian said Thursday that he can’t say at this point when repurchases will resume.
Buybacks on Hold
“Our first order of business is to work on the separation and make sure we have a clear understanding about capitalization of Brighthouse, the form of the separation. Once we get through that, we’ll focus on the issue of how we’ll use any remaining excess capital,” Kandarian said. “We’re not at that point yet where we can really speak to when share repurchases may begin.”
He also sidestepped a question about the company’s return-on-equity targets after a recent slump, saying he can elaborate at a presentation in the fourth quarter.
--With assistance from Sonali Basak. To contact the reporter on this story: Katherine Chiglinsky in New York at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dan Kraut at [email protected] Steven Crabill
